Charles X Gustavus of Sweden
Charles X Gustavus (Swedish: Karl X Gustav; German: Karl X. Gustav) (18 November 1622 - 23 February 1660) was the King of Sweden from 1654 until 1660 and the Duke of Kleeburg from 1652 until 1654. Early Life Charles Gustavus was born in Nyköping in 1622 as the second son of John Casimir, Count Palatine of Kleeburg and Catherine, Princess of Sweden. He was trained at the Danish military academy at Sorø and became an outstanding soldier. During the Thirty Years' War he served as a Swedish general in Germany. He was declared the Crown Prince of Sweden in 1650. Queen Christina rejected his marriage proposals. After relations deteriorated with the queen he retired to Öland. In 1652 he succeeded his father as Duke of Kleeburg but abdicated the position to his brother Adolph John in 1564 when Christina abdicated and Charles Gustavus succeeded her. King of Sweden Charles Gustavus immediately began to reorganise the Swedish state to war. He consolidated the finances of the state damaged by the Thirty Years' War and married Hedwig Eleanore of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp to gain an ally in future wars against Denmark. In 1655 he convinced a secret council that war against Poland was both necessary and advantageous, but the council postponed consideration on the subsidies due to the crown for military matters. This was soon resolved and on 10 July 1655 he left Sweden to war against Poland in the Second Northern War (1655 - 1660). War in Poland At the disposal of Charles Gustavus at the beginning of the campaign were 50,000 troops and 50 warships. Hostilities had already commenced when the Swedes captured Dünaburg in Polish Livonia of 1 July. The Polish army encamped in the swamps around the Netze declared a convention of 25 July and the palatines of Poznań and Kalisz placed themselves under his protection. Thereafter the Swedes captured Warsaw without conflict, occupied all of Greater Poland, and forced King John II Casimir to flee to Silesia. Charles Gustavus moved onto Kraków which he captured after a two month siege. On 18 October he moved onto the fortress-monastery of Czestochowa but after a seventy day siege was forced to retreat after heavy losses. The defeat at Czestochowa gave rise to Polish and religious sentiment against the Swedish occupation. Charles was considered tactless and his soldiers barbaric mercenaries, and illegitimate after refusing to consolidate his position by summoning the diet. Furthermore his plans to partition the kingdom which he intended to befriend awoke even more nationalistic sentiment. In early 1656 King John II Casimir returned from exile and managed to quickly raise an army to fight the Swedes. His main objective, the conquest of Prussia remained unachieved and the Brandenburg Elector Frederick William I had become alarmed at the ambition of the Swedish king. Charles forced the Elector, through threat, to become his ally and vassal in the Treaty of Königsberg (17 January 1656) but the Polish uprising forced him to quickly travel south. For weeks he pursued the Polish guerillas through the snow-covered plains and penetrated as far as Jarosław in Galicia, by which time he had lost two-thirds of his soldiers without result. Meanwhile the Russians invaded Livonia and besieged Riga (then the second largest city in the Kingdom of Sweden]] in the Russo-Swedish War. Charles retreat to Warsaw between three convergent armies in a marshy forest region intersected by well-guarded rivers is considered one of his most brilliant achievements. But on 21 June the Poles recaptured Warsaw. He was forced to sign the Treaty of Marienburg (23 June 1656) to maintain the alliance with Brandenburg. From 28 to 30 July the combined Brandenburg-Sweden army of 18,000 defeated the 40,000 strong Polish army and recaptured Warsaw. However the capture did not have the desired result, the Elector forced Charles to open negotiations and after his terms were rejected was forced to fight the war alone. By the Treaty of Labiau (20 November 1656) the Brandenburg alliance was reforged although East Prussia remained no longer a Swedish vassal. War in Denmark Charles Gustavus' campaign in Poland was in shatters and his alliance with Brandenburg had become indispensable, so when word came of the declaration of war by Denmark on 1 June 1657 he received the news with satisfaction. By 18 July he had reached the borders of Holstein. The Danish army dispersed and he recaptured the Duchy of Bremen. In early autumn his soldiers had overrun most of Jutland. But the fortress of Fredriksodde held his army at bay from August until October, and after two days battle the Danish fleet forced the Swedish fleet to abandon its attack on the Danish islands. The situation was made worse when the Elector of Brandenburg learned of his difficulties, joined the alliance against him, and forced him to accept the mediation of Oliver Cromwell and Cardinal Mazzarin. The negotiations floundered due to the intransigence of Charles Gustavus, and after being encouraged by the capture of Fredriksodde on October 24 he renewed his war. Beginning in the middle of December a great frost had become so intense that the Small Belt could be crossed by his army. So began the March across the Belts. On 30 January he lead his army from Haderslev in southern Jutland across the ice. At the Battle of Funen on the opposite shore he defeated the Danes with small losses. Through the advice of Erik Dahlberg he then marched to Copenhagen on a circuitous route across the islands of Langeland, Lolland and Falster. On 11 February he landed on Zealand which forced the Danes to surrender significant parts of Denmark in Scania to Sweden to save the rest by the Treaty of Roskilde (February 28). But in defiance of international convention Charles Gustavus continued his attack of Copenhagen until the city was relieved by Jacob van Wassenaer Obdam and his Dutch fleet, who made clear that they would not allow the Baltic Trade to be dominated by Sweden. Charles died in Gothenburg in 1660 aged 37 and was buried in Stockholm. Marriage John Casimir fathered a son in an affair with Brigitta Allerts: #Gustavus (13 March 1649 - 1 January 1708) John Casimir married Hedwig Eleanore of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp (23 October 1636 - 24 November 1715), daughter of Duke Frederick III, on 24 October 1654 and had the following son: #Charles (4 December 1655 - 15 April 1697) Category:Wittelsbach Category:History of Sweden Category:Sweden Category:Swedish rulers